Mexico warden, 2 other prison officers charged over riot

1of3Pope Francis greets people upon arrival to Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City, Friday, Feb. 12, 2016. The pontiff is in Mexico for a week-long visit. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)Photo: Eduardo Verdugo, STF

2of3A group of children running to embrace the Pope Francisc during the welcoming ceremony upon arrival to Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City, Friday, Feb. 12, 2016. The pontiff is in Mexico for a week-long visit. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)Photo: Eduardo Verdugo, STF

3of3A group of children running to embrace the Pope Francisc during the welcoming ceremony upon arrival to Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City, Friday, Feb. 12, 2016. The pontiff is in Mexico for a week-long visit. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)Photo: Eduardo Verdugo, STF

MONTERREY, Mexico - The warden, superintendent and a guard have been arrested on murder charges following a prison riot in northern Mexico that killed 49 people, state prosecutors said Saturday.

On Friday, Nuevo Leon prosecutors had said that three state officers had been charged with murder in connection to the riot, but did not identify them by name or position. The two prison officials were also charged with abuse of authority.

On Thursday, rival factions of the Zetas drug cartel slaughtered each other inside the Topo Chico prison. The guard who was charged with murder fired on an inmate and killed him, prosecutors said.

State prosecutor Roberto Flores said prison director Gregoria Salazar Robles and superintendent Jesus Fernando Dominguez Jaramillo were charged for not maintaining the necessary security measures inside the prison. Investigators determined inmates had bats and metal bars that were used in the bloodbath. Some cells did not have locks and inmates were out and about at times they should not have been.

Many prisons in Mexico are under the control of the inmates.

On Friday, Flores said that four of the nine bodies still unidentified could not be named because the prison had no record of them at the facility. The other five bodies were badly burned and were awaiting DNA testing.